The Sydney-based broker has settled more than $100m in loans each year for the past six years
About 10 years ago, Alex Nochar made the switch from business manager to mortgage broker, and never looked back.
Settling more than $100m of loans each year for the past six years running, Nochar has been named 25 in MPA’s Top 100 for 2019.
The Sydney-based broker spoke to MPA about what it takes to double the $50m threshold and build a successful business.
Excellent service from day one
While the value of his loan book is formidable, Nochar says he doesn’t have a sales focus. Instead, he aims to provide excellent customer service from day one.
“I do not treat mortgage broking as a sales business, I treat it as a service business,” he says.
This means always putting the customer first and showing genuine care while providing a first-class service.
“If you do that from day one, all of those clients will come back to you.”
He says being accessible and responsive is another key aspect to successful mortgage broking, especially in the early days.
But a big part of his success comes from the fact that he loves what he does as a broker.
“I think from a broking perspective, first and foremost I’m genuinely passionate about what I do,” he says.
“I get a huge amount of satisfaction from helping people.”
He especially loves the longevity of the relationships he builds over time.
“I’m still dealing with clients that I first met 10 years ago when I started. That is hugely rewarding.”
Creating Shore
About seven years ago, Nochar set up Shore Financial with fellow broker Theo Chambers.
He says while starting a business comes with its fair share of challenges, it has proved to be a major highlight in his career; the company’s success bringing a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.
“We started out with three people and we ended up with 50 today.”
“A lot of the brokers that started with Shore are writing close to $100m a year.”
He attributes much of the company’s success to a strong focus on quality recruitment as well as developing solid partnerships with real estate companies.
“We did really focus on the real estate space – that was the core of our business at that stage.”
He says the biggest challenge in the early days was figuring out what roles and responsibilities they each wanted to do, which they overcame by having honest and constructive conversations with one another.
“Certainly, from that perspective that’s how we overcame those early days because we didn’t know what it (the business) was going to be but we both had visions.”
To brokers just starting out in the industry, Nochar says it is important to build strong connections, both with clients and industry professionals.
“Building great relationships with everyone you meet – and that’s your lenders, the BDMs, the aggregators – anyone in the industry that can help give you knowledge and help you achieve your clients’ goals, is important.”
“People will always come back and people will always refer if you do a really good job.”
“It doesn’t take long for your business to really escalate quickly.”
“I think if you always hold those true, you can’t fail.”
